"TTIP - FREE TRADE OR FREE CITIZENS?"

ARTE THEME EVENING WITH VENTANA-FILM ON TUESDAY, APRIL 21th, at 11:30 PM.

Politicians rave about the TTIP Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the US, saying it will be the "biggest economic deal in history": more jobs, growth, and prosperity for 800 million people as well as fair rules for globalization. But critics warn: not only will consumer, environmental and data protection be sacrificed by capitalism, but also our democracy.

The EU-Top Trade Bureaucrat Jean-Luc Demarty is enthusiastic about the transatlantic free trade agreement TTIP. And all the more in Washington, one is dreaming of a market that reaches from Hawaii to the Baltic Sea. This agreement is about the West taking the lead before China or the others.

Critics, on the other hand, take the new EU-Canada free trade agreement CETA as a model. According to it, they warn of a decline in environmental, consumer and data protection standards in the interest of large international corporations. Advocates, likewise, concede that the US is all about 'big data'; the massive collection and evaluation of data for advertising and cultural industries. The EU Commission will be opening its doors to genetically modified food products, welcoming the US high-tech agricultural industry. Not only that, but it would allow corporations’ right to sue in contravention of democratic jurisdiction.

Prominent figures are raising their voices. For example, US civil rights activist Lori Wallach calls the free trade agreement "a coup in slow motion". France's directing icon Costa Gavras insists that Europe should gain more strength from its own cultural diversity. The British intellectual Glyn Moody says "The European politicians no longer represent our interests". The key question is: what counts more – free trade or free citizens - capitalism or democracy